The Glory in the Rear
(No. 1793)
Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, August 3rd, 1884, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the [1]Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed
and went behind them, and the pillar of the cloud went from before
their face, and stood behind them: and it came between the camp of the
Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and it was a cloud and darkness to
them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not
near the other all the night." Exodus 14:19-20.
"The glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward." Isaiah 57:8.
"For the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your
rereward." Isaiah 3:12.
WHEN THE ISRAELITES left the place of their bondage and came to the
edge of the wilderness, a visible token of the Lord's presence and
leadership was granted to them. They saw high in the air a pillar,
which by day might be compared to rising smoke, but at night became a
flame of fire. Such displays on a small scale were usual in the march
of armies, but this was of supernatural origin. Where it moved the
people were to follow; it was to be their companion, that they might
not be alone, their conductor, that they might not go astray. We have
become familiar, by accounts of our own soldiery in Egypt, with the
extreme danger of the oriental sun when men are marching over the fiery
sand: this cloud would act as a vast umbrella tent, covering the whole
of the great congregation, so that they could march without being faint
with the heat. By night their canvas city was lighted up by this grand
illumination. They could march as well by night as by day, for we are
told at the close of the previous chapter that by night the Lord went
before them "in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and
night." Might they not have said, "The Lord God is a sun and shield"?
Did they not realize the fulfillment of the promise not yet spoken in
words, "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night"?
This sacred symbol of the divine presence must have been a very great
solace to them in those early days, when their pilgrim life was novel
to them, and their newly-found liberty was darkened by a terrible fear
of recapture.
The particular sign which the Lord vouchsafed them was very practical;
it was not only glorious, but useful; it served them both for shade and
light, and was both their guide and guard. It was exceedingly
conspicuous, so that they could all see it. Any man of the millions who
came out of Egypt could stand at his tent door and see this flaming
signal high in heaven, floating over all as the banner and oriflamme of
the Great King. It appears to have been continual; an abiding token,
and not an intermittent brightness. Even thus has Moses written:"He
took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by
night, from before the people."
Beloved friends, God is always with those who are with him. If we trust
him, he hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." There
is a special and familiar presence of God with those who walk
uprightly, both in the night of their sorrow, and in the day of their
joy. Yet we do not always in the same way perceive that presence so as
to enjoy it. God never leaves us, but we sometimes think he has done
so. The sun shines on, but we do not always bask in his beams; we
sometimes mourn an absent Godit is the bitterest of all our mourning.
As he is the sum total of our joy, so his departure is the essence of
our misery. If God do not smile upon us, who can cheer us? If he be not
with us, then the strong helpers fail, and the mighty men are put to
rout. It is concerning the presence of God that I am going to speak
this morning. You and I know how joyous it is. May we never be made to
know its infinite value experimentally by the loss of it. If we see no
cloud or flame, yet may we know that God is with us, and his power is
around us. In that sense we will pray,
"Cover us with thy cloudy shrine,
And in thy fiery column shine."
Or in more familiar words we will sing,
"Let the fiery cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through."
I. In considering the subject of the Lord's abiding with his people, I
shall first call attention to THE DIVINE PRESENCE MYSTERIOUSLY REMOVED.
According to our text, "The angel of God, which went before the camp of
Israel, removed." The chosen of the Lord may lose the manifested
presence of God; and, indeed, often they may miss it in the particular
form in which they have been accustomed to enjoy it.
The symbol of God's presence removed from where it had usually been.
From the day when they entered upon the desert, they had seen the
fiery, cloudy pillar well to the front; but now suddenly it wheeled
about, and left the van comparatively dim, because the glory had
departed. Those who looked forward saw it no more. So has it been with
us at times: we have walked day after day in the light of God's
countenance, we have enjoyed sweet fellowship with Jesus Christ our
Lord, and on a sudden we have missed his glorious manifestation. Like
the spouse, we cried, "I sought him, but I found him not." Aforetime
everything had seemed bright, and we expected to go from strength to
strength, from victory to victory, till we came unto the mount of God,
to dwell for ever in his rest; but now before us on a sudden things
look dark; we do not feel so sure of heaven as we were, nor so certain
of perpetual growth and progress. The prospect is darkened, the clouds
return after the rain, and our soul out of the darkness cries, "Oh that
I knew where I might find him!"
Moreover, they missed the light from where they hoped it would always
be. They had been given to understand, I do not doubt, that the Lord
would be always with them; and yet now, as they looked forward, the
bright light was gone from its place of leadership. They looked for it
as their guide, and, behold, that guidance was gone! The pillar might
be behind them, but it was not before them; they could see nothing
ahead to lead them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which the
Lord had promised them. Sometimes you also may imagine that God's
promise is failing you; even the word of God which you had laid hold
upon may appear to you to be contradicted by your circumstances. Then
your heart sinks to the depths, for "if the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do?" If ever the word of God becomes a subject
of doubt, where can any certainty remain? Where any hope for the
insure? We have said, "This God is our God for ever and ever: he will
be our guide even unto death": but what if he refuse to guide us? Then
are we in an evil case. Can it be so? "Is his mercy clean gone for
ever? Doth his promise fail for evermore?"
The pillar of fire also removed from where it seemed more than ever to
be needed. Now they were in a cleft stick; how could they possibly
escape? Pharaoh was behind them, with all the horsemen of Egypt. They
could hear the noise of the chariots, and the neighing of the horses,
and the shouts of the armies, eager for the prey. Before them rolled
the Red Sea in its might. How could there be a way in the mighty
waters? Now, if ever in their lives, they must have looked anxiously
for the symbol of the Divine presence. What could they do if Jehovah
did not lead their van? Yet the token of his presence was not there.
Even thus is it with you, dear friend, who once walked in the light of
God's countenance: you perhaps have fallen into temporal trouble, and
at the same moment the heavenly light has departed from your soul. Now,
it is bad to be in the dark on the king's highway; but it is worse to
be in the dark when you are out on the open common, and do not know
your road. It is well to have a guide when the road is easy; but you
must have one when you are coming upon precipitous and dangerous
places. Is it so with any child of God here, that he sees no light to
shine before him, no star to guide him on his road? On the contrary,
does his future become more and more clouded? Is the track quite gone?
Does the sea seem shut in with an ironbound coast without a harbor?
Does he
"See every day new straits attend,
And wonder where the scene will end"?
Then let him trust; but he will need all the faith of which he can be
master. Oh, my Lord, if ever thou dost leave me, forsake me not in the
day of trouble. Yet what have I said? It is a day of trouble when thou
art gone, whatever my condition may be. Yet, brethren, our Lord said,
"Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter." Pray that if you must
for a while bewail the Lord's absence from you, it may not be in a time
of dire and dark necessity.
Thus it did seem a mysterious thing that the Covenant Angel should no
longer direct the marchings of the host of God, and I dare say that
some of them began to account for it by a reason which their fears
would suggest. Naturally, there was only one way of accounting for this
removal of the guide, and that way was a wrong one, but one to which
the Lord's people often refer their trials. I should not wonder that,
if they had been asked why the blazing pillar was no longer in the van,
they would have replied, "Because of our murmurings against the Lord
and his servant Moses. God will not go before us because of our sins."
Now, it is true, and does happen, that the Lord often hides his face
behind the clouds of dust that his own children make by their sins; but
this is not always the case. When the consolations of God are small
with you, you may generally conclude that there is some secret sin with
you: and then it is your duty to cry, "Show me wherefore thou
contendest with me." But in this case God was not punishing them for
their sins, as he did on after occasions. He seems to have been very
patient with their early murmurings, because they were such feeble
folk, so unused to pilgrimage, and so unfit for anything heroic. Every
trial was severe to the raw, undisciplined spirits of the tribes, and
therefore the Lord winked at their follies. There was not a touch of
the rod about this withdrawing of his presence from the van, not even a
trace of anger; it was all done in loving-kindness and tender mercy,
and no sort of chastisement was intended by it. So, dear child of God,
you must not always conclude that trouble is sent because of wrath, and
that the loss of conscious joy is necessarily a punishment for sin.
Such thoughts will be a case of knives cutting your heart in pieces. Do
not make for yourself a needless pain. All trouble is not chastisement;
it may be a way of love for your enriching and ennobling. Upon the
black horse of trouble the Lord sends his messengers of love. It is a
good thing for us to be afflicted; for thus we learn patience, and
attain to assurance. Shall the champion who is bidden to go to the
front of the battle think that he is punished thereby? No, verily, my
brethren: whom the Lord loveth he sets in the heat of the conflict,
that they may earn the rarest honors. Great suffering and heavy labor
are often rewards of faithfulness. Know ye not how the poet puts it,
"If I find him, if I follow,
What his guerdon here?
'Many a labor, many a sorrow,
Many a tear'"?
Darkness of soul is not always the fruit of divine anger, though it is
often so. Sometimes there is no trace of wrath in it: it is sent for a
test of faith, for the excitement of desire, and for the increase of
our sympathy with others who walk in darkness. When the cloud of the
divine glory is no longer seen in front it has gone behind, because it
is more wanted there, and it is no loss after all, as we shall have to
show. When the Lord hides his face for a moment, it is to make us value
his face the more, to quicken our diligence in following after him, to
try our faith, and to test our graces. There are a thousand precious
uses in this adversity. Yet it is a mysterious thing when the light of
the future fades, and we seem to be without a guide.
II. Now, secondly, all this while THE DIVINE PRESENCE WAS GRACIOUSLY
NEAR. The angel of the Lord had removed, but it is added, he "removed
and went behind them," and he was just as close to them when he was in
the rear, as when he led the van. He might not seem to be their guide,
but he had all the more evidently become their guard. He might not for
the moment be their Sun before, but then he had become their Shield
behind. "The glory of the Lord was their reward." The Lord may be very
close to thee, dear child, when thou canst not see him, perhaps closer
than ever he was when thou couldst see him. The presence of God is not
to be measured by thy realization of it. When thou canst not tell that
he is with thee at all, and thou art singing and crying after him,
those very sighs and cries after him are the holy fruit of his secret
presence. It may be, the day shall come when thou shalt think that he
was more near thee when thine eyes were filled with weeping after him,
than when thou didst take thine ease, and speak confidently. Much of
the creature, much of human excitement will mix with our most spiritual
joy, our groanings and our sorrows, when we are pining after the Lord,
are often more purely spiritual than our own delights, and therefore
they are all the surer proofs of the work of the Lord in our souls. Oh,
soul, the Lord may be very near thee, and yet he may be behind thee, so
that thine outlook for the future may not be filled with the vision of
his glory.
Note in the text that it is said the pillar went, and "stood behind
them." I like that, for it is a settled, permanent matter. The Lord had
removed, but he was not removing still. He would stay as long as was
needful where he then was. That glorious angel, shrouded in the clouds,
stood with his drawn sword in the rear of Israel, saying to Pharaoh,
"Thou darest not come further, thou canst not break in upon my chosen."
He lifted up his vast shield of darkness, and held it up before the
tyrant king, so that he could not strike, nay, could not see. All that
night his horses champed their bits, but could not pursue the flying
host. "They were as still as a stone till thy people passed over, O
Lord, till thy people passed over whom thou hadst purchased." It is
glorious to think that the Lord stood there, and the furious enemy was
compelled to halt. Even thus the Lord remaineth with the dear child of
God. Thou canst not see anything before thee to make thee glad, but the
living God stands behind thee to ward off the adversary. He cannot
forsake thee. He saith to thee out of the pillar of cloud, "Can a woman
forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the
son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." He
standeth fast as thy rock, steadfast as thy safeguard, sleepless as thy
watcher, valiant as thy champion.
"God is near thee, therefore cheer thee,
Sad mind!
He'll defend thee, all around thee,
And behind."
What is more, these people had God so near that they could see him if
they did but look back. Earnestly I desire you to think of this. If you
cannot see the Lord bright before you, and you are very dull and heavy,
then, I pray you, look back and see how the Lord has helped you
hitherto. Sit not down with your eyes shut! but look back! Steadily
observe the past! What see you there? Loving-kindness and tender mercy,
and nothing else. As I look back upon my own past lifeand I think I am
not one by myselfI cannot discover, even with the quick eye of
selfishness, anything of which I can complain of my God. "Truly God is
good to Israel." "His mercy endureth for ever." Not one good thing hath
failed; he has never left me, nor forsaken me. I have received
blessings through my joys, and even greater blessings through my
sorrows. The Lord's way has been all goodness, undiluted goodness, all
the while. I look back, and see the light of his presence shining like
the sun at noon; it is as a morning without clouds, I am overwhelmed
with the boundless bounty of my God. I am unable to conceive of
anything more kind than the heart of God towards his unworthy child.
Well, then, God is not far away, if we look backward he is there. He
has been mindful of us, he will bless us. He gave us mercies yesterday;
and he is the same today and for ever. The blessings of last night we
have not forgotten; the blessings of this morning, are they not still
with us? The fountain will not fail: it has flowed too long for us to
raise the question. If there be no light breaking in the east, behold,
it is lighting up the western sky. The Lord is evidently still behind
us, and it is enough; for we can sing, "The Lord liveth; and blessed be
my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted." "He is my rock,
and there is no unrighteousness in him."
A thoughtful person would conclude the Lord to be all the more
evidently near because of the change of his position. When a symbol of
mercy comes to be usual and fixed, we may be tempted to think that it
remains as a matter of routine. If the rainbow were always visible it
might not be so assuring a token of the covenant. Hence the Lord often
changes his hand, and blesses his people in another way, to let them
see that he is thinking of them. If he always did the same by us, every
day and every night, we should get to attribute his dealings to some
fixed law operating apart from God, just as our modern philosophers
dethrone the Lord to set up the calves of nature. But now, when our God
is sometimes before us, and sometimes behind us, and makes those
apparent changes because of deep and urgent reasons, we are compelled
to feel that we are the objects of his constant solicitude. "I am poor
and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me." He deals with us in all
wisdom and prudence. His modes change, but the changes are all from the
same motive, and with the same reason, all to make us sick of self and
fond of him. Blessed be his name, the change of his operations makes us
feel the unchangeableness of his design; and the different ways in
which he visits us only makes us value each visit, the more.
III. Thirdly, let us see THE DIVINE PRESENCE WISELY REVEALED. That the
symbol of God's presence should be withdrawn from the front and become
visible behind, was a wise thing.
Observe, there was no fiery pillar of cloud before them, and that was
wise; for the going down into the Red Sea was intended to be an act of
lofty faith. The more of the visible the less is faith visible. The
more you have of conscious enjoyment the less room there is for simple
trust. Faith performs her greatest feats in the darkest places. These
Israelites were to do what after all was a grandly glorious thing for
them to do,to march right down into the heart of the sea. What people
ever did this before? Modern haters of miracle may say that they passed
over the sands at an unusual tide, and that an extraordinarily strong
wind drove back the water and left a passage, but that is not the
notion of the Holy Spirit. He says by his servant Moses, "The floods
stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of
the sea." It is also written, "But the children of Israel walked upon
dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them
on their right hand, and on their left." The tribes went down into the
dread valley which remained when the waters dried up, and they crossed
over between two frowning walls of water. You and I would have needed
great faith to have gone down into such an abyss as that, but they
descended without fear. Moses lifting up his rod and the waters rolling
apart to make them a passage-way, with no fiery cloudy pillar in front
of them, they calmly marched into the heart of the sea. That was a
grand act of faith. This would not have been so clearly of faith had
the way been made easier by miracle and token. I know some of you who
are Christian people want to be always coddled and cuddled, like weakly
babies. You pine for love-visits and delights, and promises sealed home
to your heart. You would live on sweetmeats and be wheeled in a
spiritual perambulator all the way to heaven, but your heavenly Father
is not going to do anything of the sort. He will be with you, but he
will try your manhood, and so develop it. I have seen children cosseted
into the grave by their fond mother; and I suppose that a great many
more will follow in the same way; but God never spoils his children. He
educates them for nobler ends. He takes visible guides away from them
that they may exercise faith in him. Why, Job would have been nobody if
he had not lost everything. Who would have heard of the patriarch of
Uz? What glory would he have brought to God with his camels and his
oxen and his children? These were all taken away, and then Job became
famous. See how he sits on the dunghill and is much more noteworthy
there than Solomon in all his glory. Where the word of king Solomon was
there was power, but nothing to equal the power of Job's word when he
blessed the God who taketh away. Solomon spake many proverbs, and wrote
many songs; but none of them attained unto the glory of that
saying,"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Here was a
triumph of faith! Beloved, you and I lose the enjoyments of religion
and the comforts of hope in order that we may walk by faith and not by
sight, and may the more greatly glorify God.
Moreover, let us mark that the cloudy pillar was taken away from the
front because the Lord meant them simply to accept his word as their
best guidance. The Lord said to Moses, "Speak unto the children of
Israel, that they go forward." That word was sufficient guide. Suppose
they had said, "Lord, we will go forward if the fiery pillar leads us
forward, but not else." What then? Why, they would have been rebels. We
are to obey God's word as God's word. I heard a brother say some time
ago that he should be baptized when it was laid home to him. I thought
of what a father would say to his boy if he said, "Father, I shall obey
you if it is laid home to me." In all probability the child would have
it laid home to him more feelingly than he desired. There are some
disobedient children in the Lord's family who, if they do not mind,
will have scriptures laid home to them in a way they do not quite
reckon upon. What have you and I to guide us but the word of the Lord?
"Well," says one, "I guide myself by outward providences." Do you? You
will get into a terrible maze one of these days. Jonah wanted to flee
from the presence of the Lord, and therefore he went down to the
seaside, and lo, he found a ship going to Tarshish. Might he not have
said, "I must be in the way of duty in going to Tarshish, for no sooner
did I go down to the wharf than I found a ship starting immediately,
and a cabin vacant for a passenger. I paid my fare, and walked on board
at once. I had not to go off to the shipping-agent's, and wait for the
next liner, but all was prepared for me. Was not that a providence!"
Yes, but if you get following providence, and turning aside from the
word, you may soon find yourself in the sea, and no whale prepared for
you. Our way is clearly set before us in the word of God, and that most
sure word of testimony should be followed. I have known a brother
wanting to go abroad to preach the gospel to the heathen, but a great
many difficulties have been thrown in his way, and therefore he has
said, "I can see that I am not called to go." Why not? Is no man called
unless his way is easy? I should think myself all the more called to a
service if I found obstacles in my way. The course of true service
never did run smooth. I should say, "The devil is trying to hinder me,
but I will do it in spite of all the devils in hell." Will you always
be wanting to have your bread buttered for you on both sides? Must your
road be gravelled, and smoothed with a garden roller? Are you a carpet
knight, for whom there is to be no fighting? You are not worthy to be a
soldier of Jesus Christ at all if you look for ease. Go home! I dare
say, after all, it is the best thing you can do. True believers expect
difficulties. It is ours to do what we are bidden to do, not to act
according to fancied indications of providence. When the Lord said
"Forward!" forward Israel must go, without a fiery cloudy pillar to
cheer the way. Has not the Lord spoken? Who shall ask for plainer
guidance?
Moreover, God was teaching them another lesson, namely, that he may be
near his people when he does not give them the usual tokens of his
presence. Who shall say that God was not in the van of Israel when they
went down into the sea? They could not see the ensign of his presence,
but he could see their obedience to his bidding. How else did the sea
in fright draw back? Was it not because the Lord rebuked the sea? The
strong east wind did not of itself divide the sea; for a wind naturally
strong enough for that would have blown all the people into the air.
The wind was used of God to move the waters, but its chief object was
to dry up the damp from the floor of the sea, and to make marching the
more easy for the vast host of Israel. Truly the Lord was there,
triumphing gloriously. No cloudy pillar was seen across the waters as
Israel looked forward to the shore; but yet the Lord was there
majestically; and you may have but little comfort of the Lord's
presence at this time, and yet God may be with you wondrously. Do not
so much set your heart upon comfort, but rejoice in the fact which
gladdened Hagar in the wilderness: "Thou God seest me." It does not
matter to the fire whether the logs are cast upon it from the front, or
the oil poured upon it secretly from behind the wall, so long as it
finds its fuel. To you the daily supply of grace is more important than
the supply of comfort, and this shall never fail you so long as you
live.
Let me whisper to you one word more. After all, the host of Israel did
not require any guide in front when they came to the sea. "How is
that?" say you. Why, beloved, there were no two ways to choose from:
they could not miss the way, for they must needs march through the sea.
No room for wandering remained: their road was walled up and they could
not miss it. So when men come into deep trouble, and cannot get out of
it, they scarcely need a guide, for their own plain path is submission
and patience. Tried child of God, you have to bear your trouble, and
when that is quite clear your way is no longer doubtful. Cast all your
care on him who careth for you, and in patience possess your soul. "Oh,
but I thought I was going to find a way of escape made for me.
"Listen!" God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above
that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to
escape, that ye may be able to bear it." You have to bear it, you see.
Your great want for this present is faith in God, who has said"I will
bring again from Bashan, I will bring my people again from the depths
of the sea." Thus, you see, the light for guidance was not needed just
then.
What they did want was the pillar of cloud behind them, and that is
where they had it. What was that cloud behind them for? Well, it was
there for several reasons: the first was to shut out the sight of their
enemies from them. We read that Israel lifted up their eyes and saw the
Egyptians, and then they began to tremble, and cry out: and so God drew
the blinds down that his poor children could not see their frightful
taskmasters. It is a great mercy when God does not let us see
everything. What the eye does not see, perhaps the heart will not rue.
May I ask you just to try and use your eyes a little now? There are
your sins; will you look back on them for a minute? Look steadily. They
are quite as dreadful as the Egyptian horsemen and chariots. I have
looked intently, and I cannot see a sin remaining. "What, have you
lived such a life that you have never sinned?" Ah, no, beloved, I have
to mourn over many offenses, but I cannot see one of them now, for my
sin is covered. I believe this text, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth us from all sin." If I am cleansed, why should I see spots,
or speak as if I did? The Lord stands between his people and their
sins. Jesus, who veiled his glory in the cloud of our humanity,
interposes between us and our transgressions. Is it not written, "The
iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them
whom I reserve"? If God declares that our sins cannot be found, then I
am sure we need not look for them; and if he says that Christ has made
an end of sin, then there is an end of it. The Egyptians shall not come
near us all the night of this life; and when the morning breaketh, we
shall see them dead upon the shore. Then shall we sing unto the Lord,
for he hath triumphed gloriously, and our transgressions and iniquities
hath he cast into the depths of the sea.
"Ah," saith one, "I know that my sins are forgiven, but I am troubled
about my circumstances." Will you now look back with all your eyes? How
about the circumstances you have passed through? Do you see anything
wrong about them now? Oh, no, say you, they were all right. As you look
back you can only see the glory of God: the Lord hath led you by a
right way. Very well: learn to look at your circumstances through the
light God hath set between Israel and the Egyptians. Who is he that can
harm us? What is there to distress us? See your circumstances through
the medium of the love of Jesus, and you perceive all things working
for your good. Hitherto the Lord hath been our shield and our exceeding
great reward. We see now no evil occurrent; he hath turned for us the
curse into a blessing. The Lord has caused us to be far from fear, and
has put terror far away.
The cloudy pillar went behind for another reason, namely, that the
Egyptians might not see them. Their enemies were made to stumble, and
were compelled to come to a dead stand. "The enemy said, I will pursue,
I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my lust shall be satisfied
upon them." Why does he halt? Why does the lion pause when about to
spring? He is blindfolded. He shivers in the dense blackness,
bethinking him of that former day when all the land of Mizraim quailed
beneath a darkness that might be felt. Be calm, O child of God; for the
Covenant Angel is dealing with your adversaries, and his time is
generally the night. You will hear by-and-by of what he has done.
Meanwhile, remember what he did to Pharaoh and Sennacherib. The Lord
may not be before you, shedding delight upon your face, but he is
behind you, holding back the foe. He looks forth from the cloud and
discomforts your foes. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn." Wherefore, stand still, and see the salvation of God!
IV. Now, beloved, I must draw towards a conclusion by observing, that
THE DIVINE PRESENCE WILL ONE DAY BE MORE GLORIOUSLY REVEALED. I have
been speaking about the Lord being the rereward of his people, and so
explaining my second text: but I must now refer you to my last text, in
the fifty-second of Isaiah"The Lord will go before you, and the God of
Israel will be your rereward." This is the condition into which the
Lord brings his people when they depart from Babylon, and are no more
conformed to this present evil world. I trust he has brought many of us
into this all-surrounding light at this good hour. The Lord is behind
us, we know: our sins and iniquities are covered, our past mistakes are
all erased, we are accepted in the Beloved. But we have not to look
forward and say, "The angel of God has removed." Oh, no. We can see the
bright light before us still. Our ways are ordered of the Lord, and
none of our steps shall slide. We glory in tribulations also, believing
that we shall glorify God in them. We look forward to the time of old
age, believing that to hoar hairs he is the same, and that in our days
of decline he will carry us. We look forward to the advent of our Lord
with delight; or, if that may not be in our day, we look to falling
asleep upon the bosom of our Savior. Before us we see the resurrection
morning and all its splendor: we anticipate the risen body, that
glorified fabric in which our pure and perfect spirits shall dwell for
ever: we hear the voice of harpers harping with their harps, saluting
the reign of Christ and the glorification of his people with him. Below
there is nothing before us now but that which is inexpressibly
delightful: the day has long dawned with us, whose morning clouds have
passed away; a day which grows warmer and brighter, and is nearing to
the perfect day. A few more months, a few more years, and we shall be
in the land of the unclouded sky. What will it be to be there! What
will it be to be there for ever!
"Far from a world of grief and sin,
With God eternally shut in."
How willingly would I fly away and be at rest. I feel my wings; they
are not strong enough, as yet, to bear my soul away; but they will be.
God is making his children ready to depart, and he will only have to
beckon them, and they will cry, "Here am I," and then they shall be
with him for ever. Yes, the glory of the Lord is above us and beneath
us, on the right hand and on the left, without us and within us. We
depart not from it, though it is behind us: we are going ever into the
glorious light, for it is before us, too. The Lord shall be a wall of
fire around about us, and the glory in the midst. If you have come
there, dear brother, stop there. If you have entered there, dear
sister, never quit that charmed circle, but abide in full communion
with the Lord your God.
V. But now I have a sorrowful word to say, and with that I have done.
THIS DIVINE PRESENCE HAS A TWOFOLD ASPECT: that same glory which lit up
the canvas city, and made it bright as the day, darkened all the camps
of Egypt. They could see nothing, for the dark side of God was turned
to them. I am afraid it is so with some of you. Oh, dear friends, is it
not a dreadful thing that to some men the most terrible thing in the
world would be God? If you could get away from God, how happy, how
merry, how jolly you would be! You want to depart from him; you are
departing from him. One of these days Jesus will tell you to depart.
"Keep on as you were," says he, "you were always departing from God;
keep on departing. Depart from me, ye cursed!" That will be the
consummation of your life. To some of us the thought of God is joy, but
to the ungodly nothing would be such good news as to hear that there
was no God, indeed, they find a dreadful comfort in endeavoring to be
sceptical and unbelieving. God has a dark side to sinners; his justice
and his righteousness, which are the comfort of his people, are the
despair of the wicked.
word of God has a dark side to sinners. I will tell you what they say:
they say, "We do not understand this Book, it is so full of mystery. We
find it full of dark sayings, and hard things, and things difficult to
be believed. It is all knots and snarls." Just so; you are an Egyptian,
it is dark to you. Let me call up the smallest babe in grace, and say,
"Dear child, is that what the Bible is to you?" "Oh, no," he says, "it
is my joy and my delight. I may not understand it all, but I love it
all, and I feed on it all." Oh, it is a good thing when you cannot
understand a revealed truth to feed on it, and when you find it to be
good for your soul, you will not complain of its mystery. The Bible is
dark to the Egyptians, but it is light to Israel.
Now look at the gospel itself. Why, there are many that sit and hear
the gospel, and they say, "I do not understand this believing, this
atonement, and so on." No, I know you do not; you are an Egyptian, it
is dark to you. It is a savor of death unto death to you. I am afraid
you will go on quarrelling with it until God ends the quarrel in your
destruction. But if you are one of his, you will quarrel no longer, you
will say, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. The blessed way of
salvation by atoning blood I do accept with avidity, and rejoice in
it." That will prove you to be an Israelite; it will be a savor of life
unto life to you.
Why, even the blessed Lord Jesus Christ has a dark side for sinners. If
he were to come here this morning, oh, how gladly would I stand back to
let him come forward and show his surpassing beauty. Why, some of you
would think it heaven if you could but see him here and look into his
pierced hands and side, and mark that blessed, marred, unutterably
lovely visage. Yes, but it could not bring any joy to you who do not
love him. You do not trust him; and if the news were given out, "Christ
has come," why, you would swoon with fear in your pews, for you would
say, "He has come to judgment, and I am unprepared. He that is not my
Savior will be my judge, and sentence me to everlasting woe." There is
a dark side in the Mediator to the Egyptians while there is a bright
side to Israel.
Oh that ye would believe in Jesus Christ! Oh that ye would "kiss the
Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is
kindled but a little," for "Blessed are all they that put their trust
in him." You can come and be numbered with Israel, for the door into
Israel is Christ himself. If you come to Christ you have come to his
people, you have come to safety, and henceforth "the Lord will go
before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward." Amen.
PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMONExodus 13:20-22; 14:1-20;
Isaiah 53.
HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"145 (PART II.),212, 230.